Compressed air pump with rotary commutator



()ct. 28, 1958 E. CARIGNANI ET AL 2,357,352

COMPRESSED AIR PUMP WITH ROTARY COMMUTATOR Filed Aug. 26, 1955 sSheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 28, 1958 E. CARIGNAN! ET AL COMPRESSED AIR PUMP WITHROTARY COMMUTATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 26, 1955 INVENTORS fife/LLmy 1958 E. CARIGNANI ETAL 2,857,852

COMPRESSED AIR PUMP WITH ROTARY COMMUTATOR Filed Aug. 26, 1955 v 5Sheets-Sheet 3 Enyffip L INVEIYTOR. B M I United States PatentCOMPRESSED AIR PUMP WITH ROTARY COMMUTATOR Ernesto Carignani and AlbaCorda nei Ghelardoni,

Florence, Italy Application August 26, 1955, Serial No. 530,683 Claimspriority, application Italy November 16, 1954 2 Claims. (Cl. 103-238)The present invention relates to a pump for the lifting of liquids ingeneral and comprises two closed chambers immersed in the liquid to belifted each chamber being provided with a suction valve and with adelivery valve, said chambers being put alternately in communicationwith a feed piping for compressed air and with a discharge piping,characterized in that between the source of compressed air and thechambers there is interposed a rotary distributor adapted to reverseperiodically the connection of said source with the piping that opensinto one of the two chambers and the connection of the piping openinginto the other chamber with the discharge of compressed air.

According to one preferred embodiment, the source of compressed airconsists of an air compressor whose suction and compression valves areconnected through the rotary distributor to the two pipings openingrespectively into the two immersed chambers. In this case, the pumpworks in closed cycle with the advantage of sucking at every reversalpreviously compressed air and, hence, of increasing the efficiency ofthe pump.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the apertures ofthe distributor are arranged in such a manner as to allow ananticipation in the introduction of the compressed air so that thecompressed air is introduced at first into one chamber prior toterminating introduction into the other chamber, with the advantage ofensuring continuity in the flow of the pumped liquid. The distributormay be kept in rotation either by the very motor that actuates thecompressor or by an independent compressed fluid (air or water) motor.The number of revolutions of the distributor is adjusted in such amanner that the commutation of the connections takes place at the timeof maximum emptying and filling of the chambers respectively.

The two immersed chambers may be arranged side by side or superimposedaccording to the diameter of the pit wherein the pump is installed.

The invention is illustrated for the sake of greater clearness, merelyby way of example, in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 represents diagrammatically the pump in the case of the twochambers being accommodated side by side;

Fig. 2 represents diagrammatically the pump in the case of the twochambers being superimposed;

Fig. 3 represents an axial section of the distributor according to lineA'-A of Fig. 4 and Fig. 4 represents a cross-section of the distributoralong lines B-B of Fig. 3.

The pump, illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, is constituted essentially bytwo chambers 1 and 2 immersed into the liquid to be lifted, each of saidchambers being provided with a suction valve 3 and connected to thecollecting pipe of the pumped liquid 4 by means of an internal pipe 5provided with a delivery valve 6. The two chambers are moreoverconnected at their upper ends with the pipes 7-7' connected in turn withthe distributor 8 which in turn is connected with the aspiration conduit9 and compression conduit 10 of the air compressor 11 actuated by themotor M.

According to a preferred embodiment, the distributor is constituted, ascan be seen in Figures 23 and 4, by a hollow cylindrical body 12 closedby two covers 13-14 and provided with side channels 15, 16, 17 and 18which are arranged parallel to the axis and staggered by with respect toeach other.

Into the hollow body, a jacket 19 is introduced and is provided withfour apertures 2021--22-23 in a first upper plane and with fourapertures identical to the former ones in a lower plane, such as theaperture 23' shown in Fig. 3; said apertures putting the respective sidechannels in communication with the inside of the jacket, wherein thererevolves in sealed condition the cylinder 24 in which there are providedtwo channels 25 and 26 opposite each other and placed one in registerwith the apertures of the upper plane and the other in register with theapertures of the lower plane. Each of said channels has a nearlyrectangular cross-section with their two outlets arranged at 90 inrespect to each other. The cylinder 24 may be rotated either byconnecting its shaft 27, through a worm and helical gear reducer, to theshaft of the compressor, or by means of an independent motor.

If the channels 16 and 18, respectively, are connected to thecompression conduit 10 and to the suction conduit 9 of the compressor11, and the channels 15 and 17 are connected to the two pipes 7-7 whichlead to the two chambers 1 and 2, the pump operates in the followingmanner.

During each fourth of revolution of the distributing cylinder 24, one ofthe chambers 1 (or 2) is put in communication with the compressed airconduit 10 coming from the compressor while the other one is put incommunication with the suction conduit 9 of said compressor.

In this way, at every revolution of the distributing cylinder 24 theretake place two stages of compression and two stages of aspiration ineach of the two chambers, the compression (and aspiration) stages of onechamber being contemporaneous with the aspiration (and compression)stages of the other chamber. It is evident that during the compressionstage the liquid, which finds itself in the immersed chamber, is ejectedand sent through the valve 6 into the pipe 4 while the valve 3 opens. Inthe aspiration stage, the air already compressed in the chamber issucked by the compressor and the valve 6 closes while the valve 3 opensto permit the introduction of the liquid. In order to continuously keepthe flow of liquid in the pipe 4, the apertures of the distributor areslightly varied in width, in the sense of rotation, e. g. as in Fig. 4,in such a manner as to allow an anticipation in the introduction of thecompressed air into each individual cham ber.

#In the latter respect, the increase in peripheral extent or width ofthe distributor apertures or ports ensures that the pumping action willbe continuous and smooth. The flow of liquid through such ports will,therefore, not be intermittent but will be continuous. Because of thefact that the peripheral width or extent of the ports is greater thanthe width of the confronting portion of the chambers, for example, theport 22 in relation to the chamber 17, shown in Fig. 4, a very smoothand continuous operation of the pump is obtained.

We claim:

1. A pump of the immersion type comprising two closed chambers immersedin the liquid to be pumped, each chamber having an inlet valve adaptedto be opened to permit entry of the liquid into the chambers, an outletconduit means connected to the chambers and including an outlet valvemeans for each of the chambers, a compressor means operatively connectedwith a source of fluid to be compressed, conduit means for thecompressed fluid connecting the compressor means with the chambers, :arotary distributor operatively connected in the conduit, means so as toalternately connect the chambers with the pressure and suction sides ofthe compressor means and alternately effect a pressure in one chamberand force the liquid in such chamber through the outlet conduit meansand effect a suction in the other chamber to open the inlet valve anddraw the liquid in the cham her, said distributor including a hollowcylindrical body provided with four radially outstanding collectingchannels arranged parallel to the axis of the body and spacedapproximately 90 apart from each other, said conduit means comprising afirst pair of conduits connected to the compressor means and to two ofthe channels and a second pair of conduits connected to the other twochannels and to the chambers, a jacket fitted axially in the cylindricalbody and being provided, in parallel planes spaced axially thereof, withtwo sets of four apertures in communication with the channels, a rotarycylinder rotatably disposed within the jacket and having two bores, saidbores being disposed transversely of the cylinder and extending throughthe outer wall thereof at angularly related points and being arranged inspaced relation along the axis of the cylinder and being coplanar withthe sets of apertures so as to be in communication with two of theapertures and the channels.

2. A pump as claimed in claim 1, wherein said apertures of the jacketare of a width, in the sense of rotation of the cylinder, greater thanthe Width of the collecting channels so that a continuous, uninterruptedflow of the liquid is provided.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS533,226 Merrill Jan. 29, 1895 1,096,597 Bruton May 12, 1914 1,744,002*Price Jan. 14, 1930 FOREIGN PATENTS 433,518 Italy Apr. 9, 1948

